Development history of zirconia ceramics

Zirconia ceramic is a kind of inorganic non-metallic material with high temperature resistance, corrosion resistance, wear resistance and excellent electrical conductivity. In the early 1920s, zirconia ceramics were applied in the field of refractory materials. Until the mid-1970s, Europe and the United States, the advanced countries in the world rushed into research and development zirconia ceramic production technique and zirconia ceramics series product, further to expand the application field of zirconia ceramics to structural materials and functional materials, zirconia ceramics at the same time also is in the national industrial policy to encourage one of the focus on the development of high-performance new materials.

Since 1975, when K.C.Ganvil, an Australian scholar, first proposed the new concept of toughening ceramics by using the volume effect of the phase transition of Zr2O in zirconia ceramics, studies on ZrO2 zirconia ceramics as structural materials have been very active, starting from the aspects of phase transition crystallography, thermodynamics, toughening mechanism, material preparation system and technology, etc. To make ZrO2 zirconia ceramic material or ZrO2 toughened zirconia ceramic play a greater effect.

https://www.zhengtaifeng.com/en/Ceramicproducts/566.html

At present, there are many material systems with certain effects: partially stabilized zirconia ceramics (PSZ); Polycrystalline tetragonal ZrO2(TZP); Zirconia ceramic toughened alumina (ZTA); Zirconia ceramic toughened mullite (ZTM); , toughening Si3N4, SiC and superplastic zirconia ceramics and other aspects, other toughening ALN, eridesite, spinel, etc.

The fracture properties of Al2O3, mullite, SiN4 and SiC of zirconia ceramics were also improved to varying degrees due to the phase transition toughening of ZrO2. The Kic of Si3N4 was increased from 4.8 to 5.8 to about 7, and the KiC of Al2O3 was increased from 4.8 to 5.8. Increased from 4.5 to 9.8. It provides the mechanical properties guarantee for the further application of these materials.

Klaproth made zirconia ceramics from gemstones as early as 1789, but it was not until the 2040s that they were used in industry as gas lampshades. Since then, it has been applied in refractories, coloring and abrasives. In recent years, new zirconia ceramic products with good toughness and versatility have been developed, so the number of zirconia ceramic applications is increasing, and the fields involved are also expanding.